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Bidding farewell to Google Code

google-opensource.blogspot.com

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Re: Bidding farewell to Google Code

#91

Post by durin42 »

pdknsk wrote: post #31

Does this mean Chromium is also moving away from Google Code? I'm curious how Google plans to migrate almost 500,000 bug reports. I'm expecting Google to purchase GitHub next in order to improve its deficiencies. In particular code search, which is really poor. Google Code search is good, so Google can then apply its search expertise "in-house". https://code.google.com/p/chromium/codesearch Maybe it's just habitual,…

Chromium is already on googlesource.com, which is a different service. They have a plan for issue tracking, but it's not yet ready for prime-time.

Re: Bidding farewell to Google Code

#93

Post by dudus »

cdibona wrote: post #2

Hi everyone. I wanted to let you know (and I know this isn't a huge surprise) that we will be shutting down the Google Code project hosting system over the next year. Wired did a nice story about Github that touches on the shutdown: http://www.wired.com/2015/03/github-conquered-google-microso... I'll be hanging around answering questions, but the short form of 'why' is that it just isn't used much anymore, ourselves…

It's true that Google does not use Google Code for any coding project anymore, but it's still used as a support interface.

For instance if you want to file bugs for AppEngine the official way is through Google Code

https://code.google.com/p/googleappengine/issues/list

What are the plans on moving this and other issue lists for different Google products out of Google Code?

Re: Bidding farewell to Google Code

#94

Post by xigency »

gtaylor wrote: post #5

I'm sure some are going to immediately say "Yet another Google casualty", but I feel like this one probably needed to happen. It's been stagnant for years, and they have been on the mindshare decline since the first two years. I dread having to deal with open source software that is still on Google Code. Admit failure, provide plenty of notice (like they're doing), and close up shop so resources can be spent on more…

There are thousands of independent/homebrew projects that call Google Code their home that will probably vanish overnight. And not everyone likes using Git to begin with.

I don't see why they don't put stricter requirements on starting a project page or contributing instead of making this move.

Re: Bidding farewell to Google Code

#95

Post by Animats »

What's the median lifetime of free cloud services? It seems to be around 5 years. Someone probably tracks that.

With SourceForge putting ads in installers, they're no longer a good option. This leaves GitHub in a monopoly position, which is worrisome. Especially given the terms:

"GitHub, in its sole discretion, has the right to suspend or terminate your account and refuse any and all current or future use of the Service, or any other GitHub service, for any reason at any time. Such termination of the Service will result in the deactivation or deletion of your Account or your access to your Account, and the forfeiture and relinquishment of all Content in your Account. GitHub reserves the right to refuse service to anyone for any reason at any time."

That could be a problem if GitHub's investors want more revenue generated. We need some way to distribute open source projects so they're on at least two services simultaneously, synched.

Re: Bidding farewell to Google Code

#96

Post by joewalnes »

This is a slightly modified snippet extracted from something I wrote last year predicting the Google Code shutdown. https://medium.com/@joewalnes/some-2015-tech-predictions-1e7...

------------

It's not about Mercurial vs Git.

When Google Code added Mercurial support, Mercurial and Git were roughly equal in popularity. Git was more functional, but Mercurial was a lot simpler to use. In fact, almost everyone I spoke to at the time preferred Mercurial and honestly I thought it was going to be the winner. Project hosting sites that had typically used centralized source control systems like CVS or SVN scrambled to add Git and Mercurial support (including Google Code).

Then GitHub happened. They realized that the it's not just the source control system that should be decentralized but every aspect of the project. Projects could be forked with a single click, pull requests created and tracked, network graphs explored. It created an organic and discoverable open-source ecosystem, the likes of which we never saw on Google Code, SourceForge, etc. Anyone could explore ideas in existing projects without having to gain committer access. It was magical.

GitHub may have just as easily decided to bet on Mercurial instead. I believe if that would have happened, Mercurial would be the most widely used system today. BitBucket did something similar for Mercurial and did pretty well, but GitHub always had the lead.

It was the project hosting sites that lead the source control systems, not the other way round

So, back to Google Code. It could have been something huge and it could have made Mercurial the winner, but Google Code never grokked the importance of "social coding". Even though the source code was decentralized, the projects themselves were still centralized. Decentralized project concepts such as forking, network graphs, pull requests, etc - this was all from the new world of GitHub.

Over the past two years we've seen Google release new open-source projects on GitHub, then existing projects starting to migrate. Recently, Go started migration too — this is no casual move because it affects the import paths used in a vast amount of user created Go code which will build breakages. Yeah, the writing is on the wall for Google Code.

When SourceForge fell out of favor it was sold. It’s now filled with ads, especially deceiving ones on project downloads page which try to trick users into downloading some malware infested turd burner. In fact, for a while SourceForge were actively modifying genuine project releases to include spyware. Cocks.

Google didn't do a SourceForge. If there's anything we’ve learned from Google over the years is that they’re not afraid of shutting down projects that don’t work out. By the way, I really respect Google for this — killing products takes guts.

Google Code — I salute you. You did well, you made the open source world a better place, and above all you stepped aside when you knew the time was right.

Re: Bidding farewell to Google Code

#97

Post by micro_cam »

Myself and lots of other academics chose google code to host projects that are no longer actively contributed to but still used or of interest to the academic community as building blocks for future research. At the time it seemed like the safest place to leave something.

I'll be moving my code and forking a few analytical projects I use appreciate but I hope they would leave the site up in read only or archive mode for longer then a year as i'm sure many authors have moved on and may not even be aware of this change.

Re: Bidding farewell to Google Code

#98

Post by jfroma »

While I agree that Google Code, as it is right now, isn't needed anymore, I believe there is still room for innovation in this space and I wish there were more players than github, pushing the boundaries harder.

As a software developer is a tool that we use all day.

Re: Bidding farewell to Google Code

#99

Post by landr0id »

Anyone know how this will effect Google's Project Zero, or where they will post their findings in the future? GitHub doesn't offer the flexibility that Google Code has for marking issues as public/private which Project Zero relies on heavily.

Re: Bidding farewell to Google Code

#100

Post by tree_of_item »

Animats wrote: post #95

What's the median lifetime of free cloud services? It seems to be around 5 years. Someone probably tracks that. With SourceForge putting ads in installers, they're no longer a good option. This leaves GitHub in a monopoly position, which is worrisome. Especially given the terms: "GitHub, in its sole discretion, has the right to suspend or terminate your account and refuse any and all current or future use of the Serv…

Eh, isn't this sort of distributed sync the point of Git? If GitHub turns evil it'd only really affect people using their Issues product.
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